Crossing Over

In October 2002 Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford and the West Wales Arts Centre, Fishguard joined forces to manage and administer an INTERREG funded cultural initiative entitled ARTSWAVE. The aims and objectives of ARTSWAVE are to encourage cultural cooperation and partnerships between artists, arts organisations and those interested in the arts in Ireland and Wales.

Crossing Over unites the work of Welsh and Irish based sculptors Antonia Spowers, John Howes, Dilys Jackson, Paul Bothwell Kincaid, Ben Reilly, Pat Cunningham, Antonia Splini and John O’Connor. Artists from both Ireland and Wales were invited to exhibit in this exchange project and were selected for the strength and coherence of their work. Bringing work together in this way is often problematic, however, interesting and fortuitous collisions and collusions inevitably result. Diversity of style and individual strengths are integral to the exhibition and yet all of the artists involved unite in a common respect for the cultural heritage from which their art has emanated.

Paul Bothwell Kincaid works in the quintessential traditional sculptural manner of carving, and slowly revealing his figurative pieces from the block of stone or bulk of timber; while Dilys Jackson, who again works in mainly traditional materials and processes, carves and casts her semi-abstract pieces that make reference to the human form and its symbiotic relation to landscape.

Antonia Spowers tends to construct her sculptural pieces from a range of materials allowing them to, not only provide the sculptural form, but also to suggest or convey ideas about fundamental structures or the resonance of a specific site. For John Howes, the site is of prime importance, with interventions either made within the landscape or with materials, objects or texts derived from it, making reference to its cultural, social and historical significance.